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EAP full-page template.indd 1 2/5/18 12:51 PM April 2018 Volume 95, No. 7 Paul Heppner Publisher 31 38 Susan Peterson Design & Production Director Ana Alvira, Robin Kessler, Stevie VanBronkhorst TABLE OF CONTENTS Production Artists and Graphic Design 5 Greetings from the Artistic Director 50 Unbound Intertwined Mike Hathaway & Principal Choreographer Sales Director 52 San Francisco Ballet Orchestra Amelia Heppner, Marilyn Kallins, 6 San Francisco Ballet Leadership Terri Reed 5 4 San Francisco Ballet Staff San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives 9 Board of Trustees Endowment Foundation Board 56 Donor Events and News Brieanna Bright, Joey Chapman, Ann Manning Seattle Area Account Executives 10 For Your Information 58 Season Sponsors Carol Yip 1 3 History of San Francisco Ballet 60 Great Benefactors Sales Coordinator 1 4 Explore Ballet 61 Artistic Director's Council 16 Artists of the Company 62 The Chairman's Council EMG CITY NATIONAL BANK 24 Unbound: A Festival of New Works 64 The Christensen Society MASTHEAD 26 Unbound A 68 Corporate and Foundation Support The Collective Agreement Bound To© 70 The Jocelyn Vollmar Legacy Circle Paul Heppner Hurry Up, We're Dreaming President 73 Thank You to Our Volunteers Mike Hathaway 32 Unbound B Vice President Otherness 74 San Francisco War Memorial Genay Genereux Snowblind and Performing Arts Center Accounting & Office Manager Anima Animus Shaun Swick Senior Designer & Digital Lead 38 Unbound C Bespoke Barry Johnson Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem San Francisco Ballet Vol. 25, No. 7 Digital Engagement Specialist | Guernica 2018 Repertory Season Ciara Caya All editorial material © San Francisco Ballet, 2018 Customer Service Representative & 44 Unbound D Chris Hellman Center for Dance Administrative Assistant The Infinite Ocean 455 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 415 861 5600 | sfballet.org LET'S BEGIN AT THE END Cover: Wei Wang // © Erik Tomasson Corporate Office Björk Ballet Above, left to right: SF Ballet rehearsing Peck's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming; 425 North 85th Street Seattle, WA 98103 SF Ballet rehearsing McIntyre's Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem // © Erik Tomasson p 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 [email protected] 800.308.2898 x105 www.encoremediagroup.com FOLLOW US BEFORE AND AFTER THE PERFORMANCE! facebook.com/sfballet twitter.com/sfballet Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget youtube.com/sfballet instagram.com/sfballet Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. ©2018 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. PROGRAMS 07 & 08 | SFBALLET.ORG | 3 DAVIDBELLINGS.com It’s simple... Work with the #1 Agent in the #1 Company David Bellings [email protected] 415.518.5600 #1 COLDWELL BANKER AGENT IN SAN FRANCISCO #1 Agent | Broker | Attorney | Internationally Recognized in Top 1% A MASTER IN THE FINE ART OF SELLING LUXURY REAL ESTATE BRE#00877838 EAP full-page template.indd 1 3/9/18 2:03 PM GREETINGS FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Welcome to Unbound: A Festival of New Works. As the culmination of our 2018 Season, this festival is about looking forward. For ballet to remain a vibrant, compelling art form, we emphasize new works and new ideas here at SF Ballet. A few years ago, I came up with the concept of bringing a group of today’s most talented, sought- after choreographers from all over the world together, and giving them freedom to create. I thought the resulting dozen works might offer a glimpse into where ballet is now, and where it’s headed. We might not emerge with definitive answers, but what an amazing experiment this festival has become. When I called each of the 12 choreographers to invite them to be part of the Unbound festival, not one hesitated. I selected a few whose work we know well—Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Stanton Welch, Edwaard Liang, and Myles Thatcher—and some whose work is newer to SF Ballet audiences: Trey McIntyre and Arthur Pita. I also wanted to introduce new choreographers to SF Ballet, so I invited David Dawson, Alonzo King, Cathy Marston, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Dwight Rhoden. Some focus on storytelling, others prefer to be COLDWELL BANKER more abstract. Some use classical music, some electronic, others commissioned scores. Some choreographers are national favorites, while David Dawson’s ballet is his first American commission. One experience was universal among the group: the choreographers loved working with SF Ballet’s dancers, appreciating their openness to working in different styles and with different approaches. And our dancers love to work with choreographers making new ballets for them. There’s extra energy in the studios, and often dancers reveal different strengths and talents—to the choreographers, to the audience, and maybe even to themselves. Thank you for joining SF Ballet for this incredible adventure, and for being open to and supporting new work. I’m thrilled to present this Unbound festival, and I’m looking forward to seeing all 12 of these very different, very compelling ballets. Sincerely, Helgi Tomasson Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer PROGRAMS 07 & 08 | 415 865 2000 | 5 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET LEADERSHIP HELGI TOMASSON GLENN MCCOY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER Helgi Tomasson, one of the supreme Glenn McCoy’s career in the classical dancers of his generation, performing arts spans more has led San Francisco Ballet for 33 years than 30 years of operations and is the longest-serving sole artistic management and marketing. director of a major ballet company. Born After working for San Francisco in Iceland, he danced with Harkness Ballet, Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, The Joffrey Ballet, and New York City Ballet, where he distinguished he joined San Francisco Ballet in 1987. He served as company himself as a dancer of technical purity, musicality, and intelligence. manager and general manager before being appointed executive Tomasson assumed leadership of SF Ballet in 1985. Under his guidance, director in April 2002. McCoy has overseen the production of SF Ballet has developed into a company widely recognized as one of more than 60 new repertory and full-length ballets and more than the finest in the world. Tomasson has balanced devotion to the classics 45 domestic and international tours, including engagements in with an emphasis on new work, cultivating frequent collaborations and Paris, London, New York, Beijing, and Washington, DC. He commissions with renowned choreographers such as William Forsythe, supervised SF Ballet’s operations for the critically acclaimed Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, and Mark Morris, among international dance festival, UNited We Dance, in 1995 and others. Tomasson has choreographed more than 50 works for SF Ballet, SF Ballet’s 75th Anniversary Season in 2008. He has overseen including full-length productions of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, tapings of Lubovitch’s Othello, Tomasson’s Nutcracker, and Romeo & Juliet (taped for Lincoln Center at the Movies’ Great American Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, which have been broadcast on Dance), Giselle, and Nutcracker (taped for PBS’s Great Performances). PBS by Thirteen/WNET New York’s performing arts series He conceptualized the 1995 UNited We Dance festival, in which Great Performances, as well as Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, SF Ballet hosted 12 international companies; the 2008 New Works which premiered in Lincoln Center at the Movies’ Great American Festival, which included 10 world premieres by 10 acclaimed Dance series in 2015. choreographers; and Unbound: A Festival of New Works. Tomasson has also connected SF Ballet to the world, through co-commissions with American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet; and major tours to Paris, London, New York City, China, and UNION BANK his native Iceland. MARTIN WEST PATRICK ARMAND MUSIC DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR, PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR SAN FRANCISCO BALLET SCHOOL Martin West leads an Orchestra that is as Born in Marseille, France, Patrick musically excellent as it is adventurous. Armand studied with Rudy Bryans, Under his direction the Orchestra has his mother Colette Armand, and at greatly expanded its catalog of recordings. the École de Danse de Marseille. Born in Bolton, England, he studied math He won the Prix de Lausanne in at Cambridge. After studying music at the 1980 and continued his studies Royal Academy of Music in London and St. Petersburg Conservatory at the School of American Ballet. In 1981, he joined the Ballet of Music, he made his debut with English National Ballet and was Théâtre Français de Nancy and was promoted to principal dancer appointed resident conductor. As a guest conductor, he has worked in 1983. The following year he joined English National Ballet, with New York City Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, and where he danced for six years before joining Boston Ballet in The Royal Ballet. He was named music director of SF Ballet in 2005. 1990. A frequent guest teacher for schools and companies in West’s recordings with SF Ballet Orchestra include the complete Amsterdam, Florence, London, Naples, Tokyo, and Toronto, score of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and an album of suites from Delibes’ Armand was appointed teacher and ballet master of the Teatro Sylvia and Coppélia.